In The Company of Deceit

Chapter 20 - Calm to Chaotic

Kate called Virginia's room to see if she would be interested in company for dinner but got no answer, and she wasn't sure she wanted to eat alone. She went out and knocked on her door just in case she wasn't answering but with the same result. Then Kate noticed the do not disturb sign on Benjamin's door and she chuckled to herself. Two sorry people commiserating.

On a devious whim she called Belinda's room and asked her if she would like some company for dinner, assuming with the worry over her daughter she could use some relief. Belinda surprisingly agreed, and they set a time for seven-thirty. With just over an hour and a half to go, Kate lay on the bed and tried to organize her next moves; they would be critical to her future plans.

They were free to go as far as the police were concerned, but she wasn't sure to where. Salt Lake had been an initial goal but she was really a west coast girl and heading away from her comfort zone was beginning to affect her; she discarded her earlier thoughts of heading east. She couldn't go back to her job or even to that city but it was a big coast and she felt she could find some place to settle and start over; a lot would depend on her little scheme... if she was even right.

******

Mickey sat in the dark in his room with the pack full of money on his lap. His nerves were jangling over the near miss with High Hat's boy. How had they found him, and what was he going to do now? It occurred to him that sneaking back into the hotel might not have been the smartest move after all; it was the only solid lead for his whereabouts ever since the accident. Stupid move, Wireton, he chided himself.

His stomach growled and he realized also that he hadn't eaten. The hamburger was stuck to the floor of the Mercedes in a puddle of coffee and he had nothing. He went to the door and peered cautiously up and down the hall. A few doors down a room service tray sat on the floor, and Mickey could see it held some uneaten fruit. At last, some good frickin' luck, he hissed to himself.

He checked both ways again and then slipped down the hall and was bending down sorting through the dishes when another door down the hall opened and a huge black man stuck his massive head out the door and stared straight at Mickey.

"Holy shit, it's you!" The man's voice rumbled down the hallway.

Mickey jumped up holding two hands full of leftovers from the tray and gaped at the man. There was no doubt, it was Mookie Washington, High Hat's gopher. He dropped the food leftovers and darted back to his room, cursing over his stupidity at returning to the hotel. Who was the guy on the highway then, he wondered briefly, as he slammed and locked the door, his ear pressed against the wood, listening.

Mookie stood undecided. He knew it was Mickey but what should he do. He didn't want to attract a lot of attention in the hotel, yet Mickey could go out a window or something and he may never find him. Think, he told himself. This was a chance to look good to High Hat and maybe make his own reputation as someone of importance. He started down the hall toward Mickey's room and stopped outside the door, leaning his large head against the cool wood.

Kate came out of her room at the same time as Belinda with her luggage cart and they both stopped looking at the hulk in between them leaning on Mickey's door.

"Are you all right, sir?" Kate asked moving a little closer.

Mookie stood back and blinked a few times. "Uhm, yes... I knocked and didn't get an answer but I thought I heard someone inside."

"Are you looking for Mickey?" Belinda joined Kate and they stood together facing the large man.

"Yes, we uh- we're old friends from LA."

"You should get the desk to call his room for you." Kate suggested, and the trio stood awkwardly, waiting in silence for the other to make a move.

On the other side of the door the silence gave Mickey the courage to chance a peek outside but as soon as the latch clicked, Mookie spun around and slammed the door all the way open. Mickey screamed. Kate and Belinda jumped back, startled, then Belinda turned and fled to her room. Mookie charged past Kate through the doorway.

Ralph was just putting on his freshly cleaned pants when the uproar started, and he opened his door in time to see his neighbour from the adjoining room smash the hotel door in. The woman he'd spoken to earlier was leaning on the frame and staring inside, aghast .

"What's happening?" Ralph ran down to the room and looked past Kate to see Mickey up on the bed waving a lamp at the hulk from his adjoining room.

"Wireton!" Ralph was stunned. The guy was in the same hotel all the time! He charged back to his room returning immediately waving a gun, as he pushed Kate out of the way and entered the room slamming the door after him.

Kate gave a gasp and covered her mouth, frozen as she listened to the yelling and arguing inside. The noise from Mickey's room grew until the roar of the gun turned everything quiet.

Mookie leaned against the wall, stunned, watching the blood pump out of his massive chest. His face began to sag, and his eyes followed as he slowly slid down the wall like melting chocolate.

"Jesus, you shot him!" Mickey was still balancing on the bed holding the bedside lamp and Ralph was watching the completion of Mookie's demise.

"And you're next, Wireton," Ralph said menacingly, turning to face the man he'd been hunting. "Unless I get that money you took from Edwin after you killed him."

"How- you found Rose."

"Oh yeah, I found her, and I got the lousy five hundred you so generously left her for her car. Now I want the rest."

"I never left her that it was..." Mickey cursed himself silently but it was too late.

"It was who, Edwin?"

He knows! Rose gave him up. "Okay, look. There's money in my pack but it isn't all from this Edwin guy. Some- quite a lot actually is from a guy in LA I ripped off; that's why he was after me." Mickey pointed to Mookie, and when Ralph's eye flicked away, he hurled the lamp at him and leaped off the bed, tackling Ralph to the floor.